ShadowCam
  • About the Project(current)
  • Featured Images(current)
  • Recent News(current)
  • Software(current)
©ShadowCam 2024 •
NASA • KARI • SESE

Featured Image

Complicated Lighting

Finally, we can see within the Shackleton permanently shadowed region (PSR)!  In this area, the floor is littered with boulders resting on a large hummocky deposit.  Brightness contrasts arise from the interplay of topography, secondary ...
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Recent News

First ShadowCam PDS Release!

Footprint plot of the just released ShadowCam observations around the south pole [NASA/KARI/Arizona State University]. The ShadowCam team is excited to announce the time has arrived for the first release of ShadowCam data into the PDS!
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Nadir view of PSR Erlanger crater

ShadowCam

Seeing in the Shadows

ShadowCam is based on the successful Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) and is approximately 200 times more sensitive than the current NAC, which will allow scientists to see into the permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) surrounding the Moon's poles.
Lunar south pole illumination map

What are PSRs?

Permanently Shadowed Regions

Permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) may be the most valuable real estate in the Solar System, with the potential for cold-trapped volatiles, which could provide essential resources to enable future exploration of the Moon and beyond.
Illustrated view of ShadowCam seeing in the shadowed portion of a PSR

The Mission

NASA, ASU, and KARI

NASA selected ShadowCam as a contribution to the Korea Aerospace Research Institute’s (KARI) first lunar exploration mission, Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO). ShadowCam will address three of four Strategic Knowledge Gaps and join four other KARI-developed instruments onboard KPLO.
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